Irving's Scrapbook
by Arayllin
Summary: A series of unrelated one-shots; range from just about every genre, character and pairing in the fandom; always taking suggestions and requests!


**_A/N: _**_Welcome to the first installment of my collection of PnF one-shots! I don't have a lot to say here, other than the fact that I hope you enjoy my stuff! I will always post story details at the start of each separate fic, so that you can skip any you may not be interested in. That said, please enjoy the first story!_

* * *

**Title: **Overload**  
Word Count: **3 167**  
Rating: **K+ / T**  
Genre/s: **hurt/comfort, family, friendship  
**Setting: **Saturday afternoon, Flynn-Fletcher residence**  
Pairing/s:** Phinerb (non-romantic), slight Phinbella

* * *

"Ferb, Ferb!" A loud shout coming from the backyard caught the young boy's attention, and he turned to look out the back window, a look of confusion on his usually black face. It wasn't very often that people called _his_ name – and especially not the person who was calling it now.

Isabella burst through the back door, her eyes wide as she grabbed his hand and pulled him away from his breakfast. "Have you seen Phineas this morning?"

"Umm," Ferb attempted to answer, but found she didn't seem to be looking for one. Instead, she continued to drag him, out the back door and around to the garage. Allowing himself to be dragged, Ferb thought back to that morning. Now that he thought about it, he _hadn't _seen his step-brother that morning. Phineas' bed had been empty when he'd woken up, and he'd just assumed the redhead was overexcited to start the day. Ferb had been planning to meet him for breakfast downstairs, but he hadn't shown up there either… what was going on here?

"Guys, I brought Ferb! Now we can – oh my gosh!" The hand tugging him suddenly went slack, and when Ferb looked to what she had seen, he felt his own heart just about stop.

A large pile of various bits of machinery littered the floor of the garage – _dangerous _parts. Sharp shards of various inventions stuck out left, right and center, and sparks were flying all over the place. From the smell of the place, there was also a gas leak, and each spark made Ferb more and more nervous. Grabbing Isabella's hand, he tried to pull her away from the wreckage, but she was frozen to the spot. Leaning forwards, Ferb was shocked to see tears in her eyes.

"I… I _told_ him it wasn't safe," she whispered to herself, "I _told_ him!"

Glancing over at the pile, Ferb raised an eyebrow. "What do you–"

"Phineas is under there somewhere!" She cried, bursting into tears and burying her head in Ferb's shoulder, "He was trying to get pieces for a new invention and he tried to climb this pile and… I _told_ him it wasn't safe!"

She continued to cry on his shoulder while Ferb's heart sank. His brother was stuck under the pile? The pile of _highly dangerous and explosive pieces of machinery?_ This was so not happening.

Grabbing his friend's shoulder more forcefully, Ferb pulled her away from the garage and to the end of the driveway where she would be safe, in case the disturbance he was about to make set off any explosions.

"Stay here," he told her quietly, "this is about to get messy." Bracing himself, he took a deep breath and prepared to sprint towards the garage. _On the count of three._

_One…_

_Two…_

_Thr—_

The garage exploded.

Isabella screamed from somewhere behind him as Ferb threw his hands up to cover his head. Bits of machinery and sharp objects fell all around them, somehow avoiding injuring either of them. In shock, Ferb turned to check that Isabella was all right before looking back to the garage, almost afraid of what he would see there. What met his eyes, however, was nothing but smoke, and he ran in closer, ignoring the warnings going off in his mind. To get any closer to the garage was dangerous, he knew, but he had to find his brother. He _had_ to!

"Phineas?" Choking on what he knew were hazardous chemicals, Ferb edged further into the garage. He was careful to keep his head down, trying to keep as clear from the smoke as he could so that he was pretty much crawling on all fours. Making it to about the center of the garage, he found a relatively smaller pile of sharp objects and sparking machines; so it _was_ still in danger of blowing up.

"Phineas!" Ferb shouted, his voice cracking in fear. He knew he wasn't as freaked out as he should have been – everything seemed too surreal at this point, and he wasn't one to overreact unless he seriously had a reason to. Continuing to crawl forward, he didn't stop moving until he slipped on a slick coating covering the ground, falling flat onto his face against the hard floor. _Must be a chemical spill_, he thought, pushing himself up again. _I wonder what it was that… _he froze. This was definitely the wrong colour and viscosity for any chemical he had ever heard of.

Sudden tears sprang into his eyes as he followed the "spill" with his eyes; tracing it directly to the center of the explosion, where another small pile of parts covered over the source of it. "Ph-Phin…?"

There was no response, and Ferb climbed to his feet, ignoring the stinging in his eyes from the chemicals. It didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore. He had to get help.

Running blindly out of the garage, he ignored Isabella's frantic inquiries as he burst into the house. Thankfully, it was still early, so he found that most of his family was sitting around in the kitchen enjoying their breakfast. Nearly knocking the front door off its hinges, Ferb tackled his mother to the ground with more force then she had known his small body possessed.

"Mum, help!" Within seconds he was blubbering into his mother's chest, and her eyes grew wide at the sight of her little boy.

"F-Ferb!" Forgoing all attempts at recovering the breakfast he had knocked out of her hands, his mother wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Hun, what's the _matter_?"

Candace and Lawrence were both on their feet, standing above the other two with expressions of shock on their faces. Neither of them had ever seen anyone in such a state – and this was _Ferb_.

Still sobbing into Linda's shirt, Ferb was babbling on incomprehensively about something or another – something none of his family could make out. At a total loss for words, Linda merely sat on the floor with her arms wrapped around him, allowing him to soak her with his tears and… whatever it was that was… all over his… hands…

"Ferb?" Looking down at her son, Linda's eyes grew wider as she suddenly put two and two together. "Hun, where's Phineas?"

Ferb's crying only got louder at this, and Lawrence and Candace exchanged a horrified look, instantly racing out the front door to where Ferb had come running from – the garage. What they found there was something they would never forget – and could hardly believe – for the rest of their lives.

"Did you _see_ the look on his face?" Buford leaned back against the wall of the neatly-organized garage, nearly in hysterics. "Ooh, that was by far the best prank we have _ever_ pulled!"

"I have to agree with you on that one, buddy!" Baljeet too was doubled over with laughter, while Phineas and Isabella gave each other a high-five.

"Cross "best April Fools Day prank ever" off our To Do List, guys!" The redhead said cheerily. "That's definitely one for the scrapbo – oh, hey Candace. Dad."

"Whatcha dooin'?" Isabella tilted her head to the side, grinning sweetly at the newcomers.

Lawrence's expression, however, did not hold a trace of amusement, and Candace's face was so red she looked like a tea kettle about to explode.

"You guys are **so **busted."

* * *

"I can't _believe_ you would do something so insensitive!"

"Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"You should know better then this!"

"You are in _very_ much trouble, young man!"

"We are _very _disappointed in you!"

It was the last one that really got to Phineas when his parents were yelling at him. They'd been going on for a couple of minutes now, and he had been feeling himself shrinking as each word left their mouths, but the last six words uttered by his mother broke his heart. Tears filled his eyes as he pushed into the couch cushions, wishing he could just sink into them and disappear.

"I'm sorry, Mom! I'm really, really, _really_ sorry!"

"Well you'd better be!" Linda snapped back, and Phineas swallowed hard, unable to meet her eyes. He had never – _never_ – seen his mother this mad in all his short life. Something must have gone seriously wrong for her to be acting this way.

"It was just supposed to be a joke!" he squeaked, even his voice failing him. "I didn't mean for–"

"Just go to your room, Phineas." The sudden change in tone made him look up again, and he found that she had tears in her eyes as well, even as she was doing her best to stop yelling. After a moment, his father stepped forward and pulled him bodily off of the sofa.

"Your room, Phineas," he reiterated, "and don't you think about coming out until your mother or I gives you permission to."

"Yes, Dad." Blinking away more tears, Phineas kept his eyes downcast as he made his way up the stairs and into his bedroom. Somehow, he wasn't surprised to find that Ferb wasn't in there – apparently he had locked himself in their parents' room. Phineas could hardly blame him, either.

"I am a terrible person." He told the floor, flopping face-first into his bed and burying his face into his pillow. It was time for a good cry – that always made everything better.

* * *

"So you haven't seen him since April first?" Isabella was whispering into her cell phone, holding a hand to her ear to hear her crush's response.

"Nope." Phineas replied glumly.

"But that was like five days ago!"

"I know," Phineas sighed, "he doesn't sleep in our bedroom, and he's never around when I'm actually allowed to go outside…"

"How long are you grounded for again?"

"A week. You?"

"Same, "Isabella sighed, "we're lucky I guess – Baljeet isn't allowed out for the next month."

Phineas sighed as well, "I'm sorry I roped you all into this."

"Hey, you didn't know your mom would call our parents," Isabella pointed out, "it's not your fault."

"No, I didn't mean that." He paused, "though I do feel bad about you all getting in trouble. I meant I'm sorry for getting you involved in my stupid April Fool's Day joke. It wasn't even a good idea, it was just… stupid." He felt tears welling up in his eyes again, and wiped them away angrily. Crying in front of a girl was the _last_ thing he needed right now. "I don't think any of us understand how badly we've hurt Ferb with our stupid prank."

"How would you know if you haven't even seen him?"

"I think Candace is really mad at me," Phineas said sadly, leaning his head over the edge of his bed to stare up at the ceiling, "Like, she barely even talks to me. And Mom and Dad don't say much either way, but they were really mad before… they told me that Ferb had a nervous breakdown and that he's really embarrassed and hurt about all of this... oh, Isabella, I feel awful!"

"I'm starting to feel worse too, now that you're mentioning it."

"I'm sorry."

"Look, my advice is that you should talk to Ferb about it," she paused a moment, "or at least Candace. Try and get some serious conversation, not just 'Phineas you suck,' you know?"

"I'm not so good at that right about now."

"I know, just try!" A sudden shout came through the phone line, which Phineas recognized as Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro. "Please – _try_! Now, I have to go! Good luck, Phineas!" she hung up quickly without giving him a chance to say goodbye, which Phineas decided not to take personally.

Staring at his phone for a moment, he flipped it onto silence and then shoved it under his pillow. Glancing over at Ferb's bed – which hadn't been touched for days now – he climbed slowly off his own and walked over to the door. He knew he would get in trouble if he left, so instead he just opened the door wide and sat down just inside of his bedroom. He figured if he waited long enough, Candace would walk by on her way out of or into her own room; however, this didn't seem to be the case today. After about twenty minutes of sitting there waiting, he decided to try out a new tactic.

Grabbing out his phone from under his pillow, he flopped onto Ferb's bed and pulled up Candace's number. A quick text would be _sure_ to get her attention.

_You there?_

He waited a moment or so before getting her response:

_what do you want phineas? im busy_

Rolling his eyes at her lack of capitalization and punctuation, he typed our a quick reply:

_Where are you?_

_im at stacys house. what do you want?_

_I wanted to talk to you._

_why?_

_Because I feel worse than awful about what happened and I need to figure out how to make things right again. Also I kind of want to jump off a ten-story building._ Pausing a moment to consider the message, Phineas hit 'backspace' to delete the second half before sending it, receiving his sister's response after only a minute or so.

_why dont you talk to ferb about it?_

_He's avoiding me and I'm not allowed out of my room._

_sneak out. mom and dad aren't home and ferb is in their bedroom. its just you guys._

_Really?_

_yep. :) good luck!_

_You're the greatest, Candace!_

_i know. now leave me alone!_

Smiling to himself, Phineas tucked his phone back under his pillow again, racing out the open door to his bedroom and over to the closed door of his parents' room. Pausing outside the door, he took a deep breath before knocking softly. No response came, but a slight noise from the other side of the door told Phineas there was someone inside. He knocked once more, a little louder this time, and when he got no answer leaned his back up against the door and sank onto the floor.

Facing across the hall instead of towards the room, Phineas began to talk.

"Ferb, I know you're in there," he said shakily, doing his best to keep his voice from squeaking, "and I totally get that you don't want to talk to me. I mean, I wouldn't either; I'm a total jerk. That joke I tried to pull on you… that wasn't funny. I only thought it was funny because I didn't think about it, and I didn't even see what it actually looked like… it wasn't supposed to be like _that_. I am so sorry Ferb. I am so, so, so, so, _so, _sorry." He paused a moment, realizing there were tears in his eyes again, and he wiped them away quickly. "Don't be mad at our other friends too, okay? It was all my idea – they just went along with it. It wasn't their fault. You have every right to be mad at me." He lapsed into silence for a few seconds, wiping at the tears that were now falling freely. Opening his mouth to say more, he was entirely unprepared when the door opened, and he fell onto his back, finding himself staring up into the red-rimmed eyes of his best friend… and brother.

"I was never mad at you, Phineas."

"You… what?" Phineas wiped once more at the stubborn tears, slightly embarrassed at the situation he now found himself in, and yet glad beyond all reason to see Ferb again. Unwilling to move just yet, he stared up at his brother, upside-down.

"I was never mad," Ferb repeated, feeling more talkative then usual – perhaps because he hadn't been talking at all for the last few days, "I was just… afraid."

"…what?" Finally sitting up, Phineas' red eyes met his brother's and he blinked in confusion. "Why were you…?"

"I thought… I thought you were _dead_." Ferb looked away, and Phineas could tell he was feeling embarrassed for having fallen for the prank.

Still looking up at him, Phineas' heart plunged into his stomach at the sight of Ferb avoiding his eyes, at the sight of the usually stoic boy afraid to admit that… well, that he had been afraid.

"Oh, Ferb…" Without waiting another moment, Phineas climbed to his feet and wrapped his arms around his taller brother. "I am so sorry."

Ferb didn't respond to this, instead wrapping his arms around the littler boy and holding him tight. "I love you Phineas."

"I love you too Ferb."

After holding each other for a good couple of minutes, the brothers broke apart and headed back towards their room – after all, Phineas was still grounded. Entering the room, they each sat down on their own beds, smiling across the room at each other, both glad everything was back to normal.

"Let's never celebrate April Fool's Day again, okay Ferb?" Meeting Ferb's eyes, Phineas was surprised to see his brother shaking his head.

"I wouldn't do that," Ferb replied casually, "or I won't have my chance at revenge."

"Revenge…?" Phineas' eyes widened a moment, and then he broke into a grin. "Ferb! You're just kidding me right?"

"Maybe." Ferb shrugged, laying back in his bed and pulling a thick book out form under his covers. "I guess you'll just have to wait until next year to find out."

"Ferb!"

* * *

From their place at the bottom of the stairs, Linda, Lawrence and Candace gave each other smiles of satisfaction.

"I told you they would make up on their own!" Candace said, her voice radiating confidence as Lawrence gave her a silent high-five.

"Your texting certainly helped," Linda nodded her agreement, "though I will have to talk to Phineas about using his phone when he's grounded…"

"Mooooom!"

"I'm kidding! I'll let it slide this time."

"That's better."

"Now, I'd suppose we should leave them to themselves for a little while?" Lawrence glanced up the stairs before taking a few steps backwards as his wife and daughter confirmed his thoughts. "Well then, who wants tea?"

"I'll have some," Linda smiled, following after him into the kitchen.

Candace, staring up the stairs and imagining her brothers sitting together in their bedroom, smiled slightly before backing off herself. "I guess I'll have some too, Dad," she said softly, not even sure if he had heard her. "…thanks."

* * *

Laying stretched across her own bed, Isabella decided to take a break from mending a torn skirt to send a quick text message to Phineas. She hoped he had his phone on him and would answer quickly.

_How did it go?_

Her answered arrived a couple minutes later, and she smiled as she read the words:

_Can't talk Isabella; we're planning out what we're going to do next week. Talk to you then, okay?_

Grinning like crazy, she snuggled into her pillows and giggled. Sending off one last, quick message, she got back to working on the skirt, humming to herself all the while.

_Okay! I can't wait! -Isa_

* * *

**_A/N: _**_Please leave a review to let me know what you thought! Also, I am always interested in suggestions and requests and will almost always comply at once, so go for it if you come up with any! :) Thanks for reading! -arayllin_


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